Aris Biniaris’s ‘Bacchae’ explores the bestial power inherent in Dionysus, the God of theatre, lust and ritual madness. As part of the collaborative relationship between SHOWstudio and the Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Nick Knight presents a series of images exploring the raw animal nature in Biniaris’s production, juxtaposing the human and the carnal

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Aris Biniaris’s Bacchae explores the bestial power inherent in Dionysus, the God of theatre, lust and ritual madness. As part of the collaborative relationship between SHOWstudio and the Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Nick Knight presents a series of promotional posters exploring the raw animal nature in Biniaris’s production, juxtaposing the human and the carnal.

Continuing the work between SHOWstudio and the Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, the SHOWstudio team travelled to Athens. After watching Biniaris and his cast rehearsing in the nascent stages of their production, the energy and physicality on display led to the creation of a rehearsal film by Younji Ku and Tom Zambaz, alongside Knight’s portrait of the director himself.

3D assets created by Ku sit alongside the written word; a series of written interviews conducted by Features Editor Lara Johnson-Wheeler with Biniaris and actors Giorgos Gallos, Christos Loulis and Karyofyllia Karebeti explore the theme of transformation and the theatrical concepts at hand.

This project embodies a cross-pollination of ideas; a dispensing of Ancient Greek mythology in favour of contemporary concepts at the forefront of the cultural landscape. Employing techniques such as 3D scanning and the digital aspect synonymous with Knight’s work, the retelling of Euripides’s classic is modernised to the max.